America’s freedom for the right to vote has been paid for on the battlefield. The blood has been shed, lives have been lost and families live without loved ones. The sacrifice has been paid. What sacrifice is it for you to go to the polls and exercise this right that has been granted to you at such a high cost?

Our forefathers built this country, struggled to prepare documents and paid the cost so that future generations would have a voice in the workings of the country we call the United States of America. We enjoy this privilege because of the character and integrity of those who have gone before us. American blood has been drained from sacrificed bodies of the committed to seep into domestic and foreign soils to protect the freedom we cherish.

Lives forever lost to the future paid the price never to speak or act again. We have given the one who might have been President, who might have hugged a child or comforted the elderly in pain. Because of the sacrifice there may be no son to carry on the family business.

On the battlefield the future of America was changed forever.

Parents live with grief for the dead dreams of success for their children. Families live without a father for the children and wives struggle to carry on without the breadwinner and head of the house.

The gap in the generation never closes over the missing person.

Will you stand up and be counted by going to the polls on Election Day or will you make excuses and not make our vote? Not voting is a vote after all. It is a vote that says exercising the freedom of the right to vote is not worth the effort and it really doesn’t matter that the sacrifice has been paid.

Word count 319

All rights owned by Brenda K. Blakely and available for free use by permission.
"Vote the Price is Paid' is part of the "Freedom the Price is Paid" project (c) 1994 Brenda K. Blakely. "Freedom the Price is Paid" T-shirts are available from:
Junction Ridge
PO BOX 1151
Raymond, Ms. 39154
the1145call@gmail.com